The sixth and penultimate stage of the Eneco Tour from Maldegem to Brussels
over 186 km is won by Norwegian talent Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia). In the
chaotic sprint he was faster than Jimmy Engoulvent and Sergei Ivanov. André
Greipel remains in the overall lead with the final stage, a time-trial in Mechelen
to come.

The maximum gap of the break was around the one minute but as Rosseler and
Rogers were the best ranked riders in the break they didn't get a free to go.
Also due to the fact that Silence-Lotto missed the break. After 136 km of racing
most of the riders of the break were caught.

The nine worked well together and got a maximum lead of around the three minutes.
The final two intermediate sprints were won by Anders Lund and Bram de Groot
while the three KOM sprints (Muur of Geraardsbergen, Bosberg and Bruine Put)
are won by Floris Goesinnen, who secured his overall win in the mountains competition.

With 30 km to go the gap of the nine was still around the two minutes and they
really had a good chance to battle for the stage win. Columbia, Quick Step and
Francaise des Jeux joined forces in the bunch and bit by bit the gap came down.
With 5km to go the gap was still 30 seconds.

With 2 km to go Floris Goesinnen and Sven Krauss attacked but without success
and under the banner of the final kilometer the break was almost caught. Jimmy
Engoulvent went on and it looked like he was going to win the stage but in the
final 15 meter of the race Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia) passed him to win
the stage in Brussels.
For Hagen it's a great win as he wanted to take revenge from missing the break
a day ago. Hagen started the Eneco Tour with the intention to do well in the
GC.

The final stage on Wednesday will be a 18,8 km time-trial in Mechelen. This
stage will decide over the overall win. The best riders against the clock who
are still competing for the overall win are Gutierrez, Rogers, Devolder, Rosseler
and Posthuma. All will give their best for the overall win.

Team Columbia report: Boasson Hagen wins stage six
at the Eneco Tour
Team Columbia continued to dominate the results at the Eneco Tour ProTour race
in Belgium on Tuesday, with Edvald Boasson Hagen using his power and speed to
win and Andre Greipel retaining the overall race lead.

A nine-rider breakaway looked set to fight out the finish but Team Columbia
did a lot of work to chase the riders and then Boasson Hagen finished things
off perfectly by jumping past late attacker Jimmy Engoulvent within sight of
the finish line.

Andre Greipel finished just behind in fourth place, in the same time as Boasson
Hagen, and so retained the overall race lead for yet another day.

21 year-old Boasson Hagen had hoped to challenge for overall victory in the
Eneco Tour and was always close to the lead after an excellent prologue time
trial. He became virtual race leader on stage five after taking a time bonus
but then lost more than 14 minutes and any chance of overall victory when the
front of the peloton split in the strong cross winds. His stage victory made
up for some of the disappointment of missing out overall and it was a valuable
lesson for the young rider.

“This is kind of revenge for what happened yesterday,” Boasson Hagen
said.

“It was a real pity to lose so much time and so any chance of overall
victory. I took the sprint and became leader on the road but then I went a bit
too far back in the peloton and they attacked at the front. I tried to chase
but it was impossible and so I lost a lot of time.”

Boasson Hagen is in his first season as a major professional but has already
won the GP Denain in France, the final time trial stage at the Criterium International
and has been well placed in many other major races. He is widely considered
one of the stars of the future.

The Eneco Tour ends on Wednesday with an 18.8km individual time trial and Team
Columbia will be looking for both stage and overall success.

Andre Greipel will start last as race leader and will try and defend the special
white leader’s jersey from time trial specialist Jose Ivan Gutierrez of
the Caisse d’Epargne team. The Spaniard won the Eneco Tour last year in
the final time trial and is favourite to do it again this year but Greipel will
be giving everything he can to win the ProTour race.